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Hooray, DFC issue 33 arrived today, and Vern and Lettuce take the Tube!



I've always wanted to show the London Underground in a commissioned piece of work, and now it's happened! Except, even better, in the Pickle Rye parallel universe, the transport engineers don't put those annoying barriers on the metal runners next to the escalators, it's all ONE LONG SLIDE. Whoosh! What a perfect world.

Edit: Hey, here are some nice words about the DFC from Paul Gravett in his Best of 2008: Graphic Novels & Comics:

The DFC: What does this "DFC" stand for? Well it is "Delivered Fridays Consistently" and it's "Definitely First Class". The DFC actually stands for The David Fickling Comic, and he is the determined publiser, backed by powerful Random House, who has made the most significant injection of new ideas and creative talent into British all-ages comics in a decade. You can't buy it in any shops, you have to subscribe online and every Friday it arrives in your morning mail. There's lots of quality here, even a sea-faring serial, John Blake, written by Philip Pullman of Golden Compass fame, but if I had to pick just two stand-out series they would be Sarah McIntyre's charming sheep-and-rabbit duo Vern and Lettuce, and Mezolith, a caveboy drama written by Ben Hegarty and drawn by Adam Brockbank, concept designer and storyboarder for the Harry Potter movies. Are you ready for their monstrous giant blue baby or their naked, overweight she-creature? This is easilly the most vivid, arresting children's adventure I've come across anywhere all year, a masterpiece in the making.

Thanks, Paul! Woodrow Phoenix's book Rumble Strip also gets a good mention. article link

Cool thing I've seen lately: the work of Chicago-based illustrator and comics man Chris 'Elio' Eliopoulos, or elio. Have a peek at some of the lovely work on his website.

Yesterday Woodrow Phoenix came up with a ruse to see our local DFC man, James Turner (eruditebaboon). Unfortunately James's day job got in the way, but we found the Super Animal Adventure Squad moping around his house, bored out of their skulls waiting for James to come home from work. We felt a bit sorry for them and took them out for lunch. I don't think we'll be going back to that cafe, it was SO embarrassing. James, please teach your animals some table manners! You can't take comics anywhere.



London: I just realised there are only four more days of this exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery: What are you like, featuring work by Mini Grey, Quentin Blake, Andrew Marr, Brian Eno, David Adjaye, David Shrigley, Donald Urquhart, Eric Clapton, Jack Penate, Lauren Child and more.
From the website: The idea is taken from a Victorian game of describing yourself with images of your favourite things: like a self-portrait. 45 people in the public eye have been asked to illustrate their 8 favourite things from a list of 12 – their favourite animal, book, clothes, comfort, food, pastime, place, possession, music, shoes, weather and pet aversion (the thing they love to hate!)

That exhibition ends on the 18th, and I'm not sure I'm going to make it, but I'd still like to see their other exhibition, Saul Steinberg - Illuminations, which runs until 14 Feb:
Born in Romania, in 1914, Saul Steinberg originally studied as an architect in Milan, before turning to cartoons and illustration; making his name as a contributor to The New Yorker magazine. In a career spanning six decades he created over 1200 covers and editorial illustrations for the publication. A master of many trades, he also worked as a propagandist, a fabric and card designer, a muralist, a fashion and advertising artist, a stage designer and was the tireless creator of image-jammed books.
The exhibition covers the whole range of his work, from high art to low, from murals to magazines, from caricature to cartography. Political, satirical, witty and whimsical, Steinberg:Illuminations is an intelligent sideways glance at the energy and contradictions of the 20th Century; entertaining and enlightening for Steinberg followers and newcomers alike.

I first heard of Steinberg when my art college tutor cryptically included at the end of an e-mail to our class, 'Oh, and if we're lucky, Steinberg might be coming to our party'. No one could figure out who this Steinberg was, and I found this Steinberg on a web search and started marveling at his illustration work. And I also realised we wouldn't be so lucky if he showed up at our party because he was dead. In the end, we never did find out who Steinberg was, our tutor couldn't remember mentioning him.

Wow. I've been suspecting for a little while that DFC colleague Woodrow Phoenix had some interesting family stories. I rang him up for help today because I was having a hard time with my Vern & Lettuce strip, and after giving me some excellent tips, he casually mentioned that he was taking his mum to Buckingham Palace tomorrow so she could collect her OBE. (That's Order of the British Empire for the non-Brits.)



We chatted about it for a bit and, very intrigued, I asked Woodrow for her name so I could look her up, and when I Googled her... Oh My Goodness!!! This is one of the most amazing women I have ever read about! And she lives right in my neighbourhood!

Have a look at what this remarkable woman has done, the list is jaw-dropping. And here's a video interview I found on YouTube, I'm still reeling from the discovery!


YouTube link